Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2- Angela

Quick Summary

Pros: Angela’s story is interesting and her role here works well with the current story. Most of the volume takes time for exciting scenes and humorous exchanges. The artwork is good overall and helps enhance the story.

Cons: Crossovers negatively affect the reading experience. The humor can be hit or miss in some places.

Overall: This is an entertaining collection that fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy are likely to enjoy. It has action, humor, and storylines that are getting more interesting than before. The volume also has few minor problems but these are not significant enough to detract from the positives. Anyone who enjoys reading about the Guardians or who enjoys lighthearted and action-packed adventures should give this book a try.

Story

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Angela, by Brian Michael Bendis, is a solid continuation of this new Guardians of the Galaxy series. It delivers on humor and action while also slipping in a few compelling plot points to be explored in the future. Plus, the Guardians themselves are as charming as ever and make this an even more entertaining read. The only problems come from the intrusive nature of crossovers in this collection. However, overall, this is still a very enjoyable read and a positive indication of where this series is going.

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Angela starts out by detailing the Guardians in their downtime. It is a nice opportunity to take a break and relax between two larger and more exciting arcs. It also gives readers a chance to see the Guardians in an atypical setting, which furthers character development and works well in the context of this volume.

From here, the collection goes on to detail some of the aftermath from the Age of Ultron event, which mostly revolves around the mysterious appearance of the newly introduced Angela. Angela’s presence here and throughout the rest of the book is entertaining. Her backstory is interesting, the fight against her is exciting, and her present situation makes for a compelling plot point. Overall, she ends up being a great character and a worthwhile addition to the Guardians roster.

The next few chapters detail how the Guardians responded to Thanos’s invasion of Earth in the Infinity (Review) event. These chapters manage to maintain a similar level of excitement and the inclusion of Angela is worthwhile. Plus, the chemistry between the members of the team is consistently well done. However, this portion of the book is not nearly as interesting as Angela’s introductory chapters.

This is a problem that readers are likely to find throughout the book, as large crossovers make it harder to become instantly invested in what is happening. Angela’s story is compelling but the portions involving timestream malfunctions seems superfluous. This happens again with Thanos’s invasion, where the Guardians’ heavy involvement with everything happens suddenly. These problems are not extreme but they do affect the reading experience.

Another potential problem with Angela comes from the dialogue. Bendis infuses all of the Guardians’ interactions with humor and snappy jokes. However, in a few places, this humor gets to be a bit much and feels out of place. Some readers may end up enjoying this increased level of comedy but other readers might not appreciate it as much.

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Art

The artwork in this volume looks great overall. Sara Pichelli draws a number of chapters that are full of imagination and detail. This helps make some of the battle scenes more engaging and helps make Angela’s backstory more interesting. This is particularly noticeable in the book’s many splash pages, which help perfectly highlight a specific moment or feeling. Francesco Francavilla’s chapters have similar positives and definitely look great all on their own.

The only problem is that the contrast between these two artists is rather significant. The visual changeup here is a bit jarring at first and may temporarily throw off the reading experience. This is a minor problem, especially considering how good the book looks as a whole, but it is definitely something readers will notice.

Continuity

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: Angela continues the story from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers (Review).

The story here continues in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Guardians Disassembled (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Star-Lord and Drax’s time in the Cancerverse is mentioned. This is a reference to the events of The Thanos Imperative (Review).
• The disruptions to the timestream happened at the conclusion of Age of Ultron.
• Issues #8-9 are tie-in chapters to the Infinity (Review) event.